Can National Governments Address a Global Problem?

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Harvard University

2001

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Concerns about global climate change due to the greenhouse effect have led policymakers from

many countries to consider ways of limiting emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon

dioxide (CQ2) emissions associated with the generation of energy from fossil fuels.1 Although there

still is much debate about the desirability of limiting CQ2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, it is

important to consider policy instruments that may be able to meet forthcoming targets.2 In a

recent essay, Professor SchInalensee convincingly argues that "the creation of durable institutions

and frameworks seems both logically prior to and more important than the choice of a particular

policy program that will almost surely be viewed as too strong or too weak within a decade."3 My

primary purpose in this Article is to explore frameworks and instruments that individual nations and

groups of nations can adopt and to achieve goals that may be specified by future "policy

programs." This exploration strongly reaffirms that institutional dimensions of the global climate

change policy problem are exceptionally important.

I begin-in Part I of this Article-by considering some criteria for assessing policy instruments and by

describing the major alternative instruments available. In Parts II and III, respectively, I review

conventional regulatory and market-based instruments. In Part IV , I focus on implementation

issues; in Part V, I provide a comparative assessment of instruments; and in Part VI, I offer some

conclusions.